History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 126

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900

USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 126
USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 126
USA > Pennsylvania > Wyoming County > History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers > Part 126

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

September 21st, 1851, at Carbondale, he married Miss Gwenllian, daugh- ter of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Lewis, and sister to Hon. William J. Lewis. now of Providence. Her death occurred in October, 1857. May 3d,1859, he married his present wife, Miss Mary Jeanette, daughter of William W. Thomas and Ann Thomas, of Hyde Park, who was born February 28th, 1840, in Brooklyn, N. Y. Her parents were both natives of North Wales, but emigrated to this conutry when young. Nine children have been born as the issue of this marriage-six daughters and three sons- of whom two of the sons and oue daughter died in infancy, leaving five daughters and one son. The eldest is Sarah Ann, born September 26th, 1860, in West Springfield, Mass. The others living are: Frank Fuller, born January 17th, 1870; Mildred Alma, born September 17th, 1872; Mary Ellenor, born December 15th, 1874; Annie [[., born February 25th, 1837; and Alice, born Angst 30th, 1879; all in Hyde Park. Pa.

407

LACKAWANNA IRON AND COAL COMPANY.

MANUFACTURING INTERESTS.

The pioneer manufacturing enterprises in the territory now embraced within the city limits have been mentioned in the early history of the locality, because they were instrumental in bringing about such primitive advances toward civilization and prosperity as were made during that period. Of this class of enterprises, but the most prominent of all, and the most potent in their influence upon the development of this region and the growth of the backwoods settlement where they were begun to the third city in size in the State, were the pioneer iron enter- prises of the Slocums and the subsequent operations of the Scrantons, the history of which is so intimately iden- tified with the earlier history of Scranton as to render their separate consideration impossible.

THE LACKAWANNA IRON AND COAL COMPANY.

The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company was incor- porated June roth, 1853, and organized with the follow- ing officers and directors: Selden T. Scranton, president; Joseph H. Scranton, general superintendent; M. W. Scott, secretary and treasurer; Samuel Marsh, William E. Dodge, L. F. Sturges, D. S. Miller, John I. Blair, George W. Scranton, Joseph H. Scranton and Joseph C. Platt, di- rectors. Mr. Platt resigned at the first or second meet- ing, and S. T. Scranton resigned the office of president soon after the panic of 1857, and from January 2nd, 1858, Joseph H. Scranton was president till his death in Baden Baden, Germany, June 6th, 1872. The officers of the corporation in 1880 were: President, E. F. Hatfield, jr .; general manager, W. W. Scranton; secretary, Edward C. Lynde; treasurer, N. W. Hix; assistant treasurer, E. P. Kingsbury; directors-Moses Taylor, William E. Dodge, John I. Blair, P. R. Pyne, W. W. Scranton, Selden T. Scranton, Joseph C. Platt and B. G. Clarke.

The company has at Scranton five blast furnaces of great capacity, an iron rolling mill, a steam saw mill, a grist mill; a foundry, making 500 tons of castings week- ly; machine, car, carpenter, harness and wheelwright shops; a brick yard, a large mercantile establishment and the offices in the same building with the latter. A glance at the magnitude of the works of this corporation will well repay the tourist, and they are justly regarded as the most prominent objects of interest in the city. The sizes of their blast furnaces may be inferred from their height and the diameter of their boshes. Two of them measures 17, one 23, one 19, and one 18 feet, while two are 70 feet high, two 65 feet, and one 67 feet. Into these furnaces the air is forced by two pairs of large condens- ing blowing engines of the double lever beam variety, built by I. P. Morris & Co., of Philadelphia, and by three horizontal engines erected in 1879. Engines numbers 1 and 2 were erected in the fall of 1854, and were regarded as the largest engines of their class in the country. The steam cylinders are 54 inches in diameter, and the blow- ing cylinders were then Io inches in diameter, but were subsequently reduced to 84 inches to increase the pressure of the blast from 5 to 9 pounds. The stroke of these

engines is to feet and they make 16 to 20 revolutions per minute. Engines 3 and 4 were erected in the fall of 1857. The steam cylinders are 58 inches in diameter and the blowing cylinders 92, their stroke being 10 feet. Owing to greater height added to the furnaces under Mr. W. W. Scranton's management, and their increase in product from an average of 200 to about 500 tons weekly, additional blast was required, to give which in 1879 another engine house was erected near furnace No. 2, 90 feet long by 72 feet wide, a massive brick structure, con . taining three horizontal conducting engines with steam cylinders 60 inches diameter, blowing cylinders 80 inches diameter and 100 inch stroke. The combined efforts of the seven engines at 20 revolutions each deliver a volume of 77,000 cubic feet of air per minute. About 125,000 tons of pig metal can now be produced annually at Scran- ton, and 25,000 tons at the company's Franklin furnace, N. J. The principal product of the mills is railroad bars, of which 50,000 tons of iron and So,ooo tons of steel rails can be produced each year, besides about 5,000 tons of merchant iron. The rolling mills contain 113 puddling and 35 heating furnaces.

The blast furnaces have always been locally known by their numbers. The dates of their erection were as fol- lows: Number 1, 1843; 2 and 3, 1848; 4, 1853; 5, 1857. In 1869 another furnace, the largest in the United States, was erected on the site of the original Number 1, and its average product exceeds that of any other anthracite fur- nace, reaching 629 tons in one week. Parts of the iron rolling mills were erected in 1843-44; a puddling mill was added in 1846-47. The first iron rails were rolled here July 23d, 1847. Regular work was begun August 9th. In 1859-60 another puddling mill was added. The puddling mill now connected with the steel rolling mill antedates the other portions of that establishment, the ground having been staked out February 8th, 1864, and its erection begun long afterward, the first fires having been kindled in the furnaces August 22nd, 1867, and the first puddle bars rolled the following day under the su- perintendence of W. W. Scranton. Excavation for the steel works was begun in the vicinity of the company's rolling mill on Washington avenue, on Good Friday, 1874; the foundations were begun June 16th and the first brick work on the walls was laid August 29th of that year. The work was rapidly pushed forward to comple- tion and the first steel was made October 23d, 1875; the first ingots rolled December 18th and the first rails De- cember 29th. The steel works consist of a cupola room 44 by 71 feet and 49 feet to the eaves; a converting room 84 by 124 feet and 21 feet high; an engine room 54 by 77 feet and 16 feet high, and a boiler room 46 by 73 and 16 feet to the eaves, all of these buildings being arranged in a rectangle 124 by 202 feet.

In the cupola room were originally located four cupo- las of seven and a half feet diamcter, four feet in depth of tuyres, and fifteen feet high to the charging doors, each capable of smelting five tons in thirty minutes, which have been replaced by larger ones. Also two ten ton ladles mounted on scales for receiving the molten pig

408

HISTORY OF LACKAWANNA COUNTY.

iron from the cupolas, and in which it is weighed before being converted into steel; also three reverberatory fur- naces for melting the spiegel, the office of which is to impart to the converted product its requisite hardness as well as to remove impurities. In each end of the cupola room is a hoisting tower, furnished with a hydraulic ele- vator of six tons capacity and fifty feet travel. The two seven-ton converters are of eight feet external diameter and fifteen feet high. These are lined with refractory material ten inches thick at the bottom of the vessel, and provided with stout trunions eighteen inches in diameter, and with hydraulic gear for rotating, mounted on iron frames and columns. They are, by means of the hy- draulic rotating gear, first put in a nearly horizontal posi- tion, for receiving the molten pig iron; next in an upright position, while the iron is being converted, and lastly in a reversed position while discharging the yet hissing steel. Immediately in front of the converters is the casting pit, thirty-eight feet in diameter and two and a half feet deep, and commanded by a central hydraulic ladle-crane of twelve tons capacity. At its extreme end is mounted a ladle which receives the steel from the converters. This ladle-crane is then swung over the several ingot-moulds in rotation, when the liquid metal is tapped from the bot- tom of the casting ladle, to avoid the slag becoming mixed with the steel. The steel ingot is then allowed to solidify, after which it is weighed and stamped with the number of the charge and its degree of hardness, and is then ready for blooming and rolling into rails. The size of the ingot depends on the weight of the rail to be pro- duced, averaging 12 inches square and 45 inches long, and for 30-foot rails 65 pounds per yard. In the con- verting-room four more hydraulic cranes are located about the casting pit and the converters for manipula- ting the ingots, moulds, ladles and other implements. Thirty heats of 712 tons each, or about 225 tons, are turned out every twelve hours. All the hydraulic ma- chinery is actuated by two hydraulic duplex force pumps, having two steam cylinders 20 inches in diameter, and two water cylinders 9 inches in diameter with a 24-inch stroke. Another pump is provided for use in case of accident. These pumps are in the engine room, where are also two independent horizontal and condensing blowing engines, 50 inches in diameter, and a blowing cyl- inder 54 inches in diameter and 5 feet stroke. The boiler house is occupied by a battery of 12 boilers of the loco- motive type, each having 112 tubes 16 feet long and 3 inches in diameter. The steam engines were built by the Dickson Manufacturing Company. All of the other ma- chinery described was built in the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company's shops. The steel works can now pro- duce about 120,000 tons of ingots per annum. February 25th, 1867, masons began to lay the foundation of the company's stores and offices, a commodious struc- ture 100 by 113 feet and three stories high, at the junc- tion of Lackawanna and Jefferson avenues and Ridge row. The building was completed and first occupied May 12th, 1868.

In addition to its old ore mines on Moosic mountains,

no longer used, the company has mines at Mt. Hope, N. J., with a capacity of about 150,000 tons yearly; and of Bessemer ores a mine at Brewsters, N. Y., good for 100,000 tons yearly; Baker mine, near Dover, N. J., good for 50,000 yearly, and its mine of Franklinite and Bessemer ores at Franklin, N. J., where the company has a large blast furnace.

The company has three coal mines-Rolling Mill slope, Pine Brook shaft and Briggs shaft. The Briggs has workings in five different veins, but the fifth vein alone is now worked on account of the superior quality of the coal. This colliery has lately been put in excellent shape, and hoists 70 cars an hour from a depth of 450 feet, or about 1,000 tons per day. Large as this amount is, how- ever, preparations are now being made to increase it. The company does not prepare coal for market, but mines for its own use only, and raises about 400,000 tons per annum.

THE DICKSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY,

of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, was organized in 1856. The partners began operations under the name of Dick- son & Co., and were engaged in constructing stationary engines, boilers and machinery for mining purposes gen- erally. A foundry and machine shop were put in oper- ation May Ist, 1856, and in that year the company con- tracted for and built the engines and boilers used by the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in constructing their new road over Moosic mountain. The work gave such satisfaction that their reputation was at once estab- lished, and thenceforward their machinery was sought after for all mining and kindred purposes; and it may be justly asserted that the perfection to which they have brought this class of machinery has placed the region where their works are established far in advance in the economy of mining and preparing coal and other natural products.

The panic of 1857 they weathered successfully, and to such an extent did their business subsequently increase that in 1862 they obtained a charter from the Legislature of Pennsylvania under the name of the Dickson Manufac- turing Company, with a capital of $200,000. Upon the organization of the enterprise in 1856 they employed seventy-five hands, and had about $50,000 capital. The working force was increased from time to time as the re- quirements of the business demanded, and in 1862 num- bered 350 regular employes.

The capital has been increased to $800,000, with the privilege of making it $1,000,000 should that amount be required.

In 1862 the company purchased the Cliff , works, and there added to their business the manufacture of cars and locomotives. Greatly enlarging their works, and adding the most improved machinery, they rapidly ac- quired a wide reputation as locomotive builders, and a large number of their engines can be found on many of the leading railroads of the country. In 1864 a planing mill adjoining the Cliff works was purchased, and to the already extensive business of the company was added the

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409

IRON AND POWDER WORKS, SCRANTON.

manufacture of doors, sash, blinds, etc. This part of the business has been discontinued, as it was thought that these shops could be more profitably used for car build- ing.

In 1866 the foundry and machine shops of Laning & Marshall, at Wilkes-Barre, were purchased, and a branch established there. Here are made stationary engines, boilers, all kinds of mining machinery and car wheels. In February, 1875, a fire at the Cliff works destroyed the main building, containing the power-tools, with a large quantity of material and unfinished work, involving a loss of about $200,000 more than the insurance. New buildings were at once erected, with increased capacity, and such changes introduced in the construction as it is thought renders the recurrence of any such disastrous fire almost impossible. These shops are now capable of turning out eight locomotives per month.

At present (1880) the works in Scranton consist of a foundry, two machine shops, two smith shops, a car shop and a boiler shop, and the company is prepared to manu- facture the heaviest and most expensive machinery. The works in Scranton alone cover six acres, and when all the departments are in full operation they furnish em- ployment to about 1,000 men.

The officers in 1880 were: George L. Dickson, presi- dent; W. H. Perkins, secretary and treasurer; W. B. Culver, general superintendent; James P. Dickson, agent at Wilkes-Barre.

THE SCRANTON CITY FOUNDRY.

Finch & Co.'s Scranton City Foundry and Machine Works are on the Hyde Park side of the river, a short distance above the railroad bridge. They were estab- lished in 1855, by A. P. Finch. The grounds were pur- chased from William Swetland, and comprise about eigh- teen city lots, with a front of something over 240 feet on the railroad. The main buildings are two stories high, 140 feet long by 40 feet wide, with additions running back, which contain the boilers, the heavy iron planer, the core oven, etc. There is also a boiler shop 30 by 50 feet, containing all the appliances and tools necessary to that branch of the manufacture. In the rear of the grounds was erected years ago a separate building as a storehouse for patterns, and in 1879 a second pattern house was erected. In the spring of 1857 B. G. Morss, of Red Falls, N. Y., became associated with Mr. Finch, and until the spring of 1865 they carried on a general foundry and machine business, under the firm name of Finch & Morss. At that time I. A. Finch purchased Mr. Morss's interest, and the firm has since been known as Finch & Co. A. P. Finch has had many years' experi- ence as proprietor and manager, and I. A. Finch has gained a practical knowledge of the business, which ena- bles him to assume the active management of the con- cern, the elder Finch now devoting much of his time to the management of an extensive hardware trade in Hyde Park. For years the firm manufactured a turbine water wheel, a useful invention of the senior partner. They do a thriving business in the manufacture of stationary and

portable engines, mining machinery, circular saw-mills, iron fronts for buildings, and steam heating apparatus. The works are stocked with machinery capable of turn- ing out the heaviest work, which is driven by a twenty- five horse- power engine of the firm's own manufacture.

THE MOOSIC POWDER COMPANY.

The Moosic Powder Company, whose general office is at Scranton, has a stock capital of $300,000. It was organized April 22nd, 1865, with $100,000 capital, at the instance of several of the principal managers and coal operators of the region, who had been greatly troubled during the war to procure blasting powder; in connection with members of the Smith and Rand Powder Company, of New York. Its works were built near Jermyn, about five miles below Carbondale; had a capacity of about 200 kegs of blasting powder per day, and were managed by George W. Rand, brother of the president of the Smith and Rand Powder Company. In 1869 the firm of Laffins, Boies & Twick, which had in 1865 purchased the Raynor works on Spring Brook, at Moosic, and re- built them, was consolidated with the Moosic Powder Company. The Spring Brook mills had a capacity of producing 650 kegs per day and were under the manage- ment of H. M. Boies, one of the partners, who now be- came president of the new company, the capital being increased to the present amount. In May, 1872, the old Moosic works near Jermyn were blown up, and they were rebuilt, with a capacity of 350 kegs per day. The company therefore is able to manufacture 1,000 kegs of blasting powder daily. The works have been run only half time during the period of depression in the coal business.

The president, Mr. Boies, inherits a natural taste for the business, being in the third generation of powder manufacturers in his family; he is the patentee of several valuable improvements, the most important of which per- haps is the idea of packing the powder in flexible water- proof tubing, so that miners may prepare their charges without exposing the powder either to the moist air of the mines or the fire of their lamps, from which latter cause many fatal and serious accidents have occurred. J. C. Platt, formerly manager of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company's stores, is treasurer of the company, and J. D. Sherer has been its secretary ever since the consolidation with Laflins, Boies & Twick. The Moosic mills are run under the efficient superintendence of W. E. Olds, an old powder maker, and the Jermyn mills under that of his son-in-law, W. S. Hutchings, who has grown up with the company.

BRASS AND FILE WORKS.

Prominent among the manufacturing interests of the city is the Scranton Brass and File Works of J. M. Ever- hart. This establishment was founded in 1853 by John McLaren. In 1871 Mr. Everhart entered into partner- ship with him. They continued business until October, 1873, under the firm name of Mclaren & Everhart, when, at the death of Mr. Mclaren, Mr. Everhart be-

410

HISTORY OF LACKAWANNA COUNTY.

came the sole proprietor. Always employing skilled labor, and using only new metals, he has more than quad- rupled the former capacity of the factory; and turning out only the best quality of work he does a more exten- sive business than any similar establishment in eastern Pennsylvania. In 1875 he begun the manufacture of the Carr & Wilcox cut file. The works are on Cliff street. Mr. Everhart employs as many mnen manu- facturing files as in his brass works, and contemplates a still further increase of facilities at an early date. John H. Hilpert, who has been in Mr. Everhart's em- ploy for the past five years and now holds the position of superintendent of the works, ably seconds the pro- prietor's efforts toward an extension of the business.

THE SCRANTON FILE WORKS

were established on Green Ridge avenue by Guesford & Sheldon in September, 1875. The present factory was erected in 1876, and occupied in September of that year. In August, 1879, Charles Guesford became the sole pro- prietor. About a dozen hands are employed; the an- nual product of the factory is about $7,000, and the de- mand is constantly increasing. If facilities permitted, twice the amount of business could be done. A full line of files and rasps is manufactured.

SPENCER & PRICE'S

Green Ridge Merchant Iron Mill, an establishment of comparatively recent date, should also be mentioned among the busy and thriving iron works of Scranton.

MILLING OPERATIONS.

Elsewhere is given the milling history of Scranton pre- vious to the erection of the old Jeffries grist-mill at Pro- vidence, about 1840. A few years later this mill was bought by a Mr. Campbell, of Carbondale. It passed from his hands to those of Horatio Pierce about 1865. In 1866 or 1867 Allen Anderson became the owner, and Edgar Frear in 1870. It has been run since that time by Frear & Maynard, Edgar Frear and Jacob T. Nyhart successively.

About 1861 Patterson & Johnson erected a flouring and feed mill opposite the Dickson works on Penn av- enue. After a few years Mr Johnson withdrew and the business was continued by David Patterson until 1868, when it was purchased by D. Silkman & Co. They were succeeded about two years later by D. B. Oakes & Co., who in a year or two converted the establishment into a brewery.

White's steam flouring mill, on Centre street and Mif- fin avenue, was erected in 1864 and 1865 by Seybolt & White, and was leased for five years to John Phillips & Co. Six months before the expiration of the lease the firm of Phillips & Co. was succeeded by that of Phillips & Seybolt, who conducted a successful business until the destruction of the mill by fire October 8th, 1871. An- other mill, of double the capacity of the former one, was immediately erected on the same site by Seybolt & White. A portion of its machinery was put in motion May 27th,

1872, and the mill was completed in the following Sep- tember. It was leased for five years to Phillips & Sey- bolt, but at the expiration of two years Calvin Seybolt purchased the interest of his partner, John Phillips, and he has since operated the establishment very suc- cessfully.

The Weston Mill Company (limited). the successors of C. T. Weston & Co. (limited) and C. T. Weston & Co., was organized in the fall of 1864 for manufacturing flour and feed on Lackawanna avenue, having already in opera- tion a small feed-mill in Carbondale. The business was continued under the style of C. T. Wetson & Co., under the active management of Charles T. Weston, until the autumn of 1874, when it was reorganized with Charles T. Weston as president; J. C. Platt as secretary and A. W. Dickson as treasurer. Two years later C. T. Weston retired; J. C. Platt was chosen president, and A. W. Dickson secretary and treasurer and active business man - ager, the firm name being changed to the Weston Mill Company (limited). In the spring of 1879 the large four- story building No. 45 Lackawanna avenue was leased and fitted with new and improved machinery for making crackers and cakes and other baker's products. The success of the Lackawanna Steam Biscuit Bakery has demonstrated the wisdom of the movement.

The founder of the firm of C. T. Weston & Co. came to Scranton in 1864 from Carbondale, to which place he had removed during the early years of the war from Riv- erton, Va., where he had been engaged for some years in milling, until his property was burned by the federal forces under General Sheridan. The present business manager, A. W. Dickson, came to Scranton from Phila- delphia in 1865, and has since been in service with the concern as employe or partner.

The Rockwell grist mill, at Providence, was erected in 1876.

AXES AND EDGE TOOLS.

In 1840 Jerison White built the first edge tool factory at Capoose, and soon after sold out to Pulaski Carter, removed to Providence and erected a second factory, which, with his dwelling, was swept away by a flood. He built a small, rude shop, in which he placed a bellows, and with the help of a boy began business on a limited scale. He built a factory in 1847 and occupied it until 1861, when he sold it to his nephew, Crandall White, who conducted it a while. After the war Edward H. White was taken into partnership with his father, J. White, and they resumed business, removing to Green Ridge avenue in 1874, where they had erected the shops now standing there unoccupied. They abandoned the business in May, 1878. For many years the establishment enjoyed the highest reputation, the specialty being axes of all kinds. These were made of the best Sheffield steel and tempered by a process of the senior proprietor's: They were also the inventors and manufacturers of an improved pruning hatchet and box opener, which had a large sale.

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History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming counties, Pa.; with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of their prominent men and pioneers, Part 126

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York Publication date: 1880 Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co. Number of Pages: 900

Author: Munsell, W.W., & Co., New York
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: New York, W.W. Munsell & co.
Number of Pages: 900